So much of the preschool day is spent on providing children with rich oral language experiences and hands on learning activities that appeal to all different types of learners. We spend the majority of the day learning about letters and sounds, book handling skills, print and directionality. Preschool educators play a critical role in promoting literacy, preventing reading difficulties, and preparing young children for kindergarten. Here are some of the things I found that I implement in my own classroom. This type of development in children is so crucial in creating a strong foundation before they move on to kindergarten. If they can go in with these skills in place already they are being set up for success. Take a look! I hope the use of pictures helps give you a visual as well as inspiration!
One activity I found came from teachers pay teachers
We spend a lot of time working on beginning sounds in words. http://pinterest.com/pin/250864641715204035/ This could be used at circle time. Different children could reach inside the crocodiles mouth and pull out a letter, practicing letter identification and recognition. They could also give the sound that the letter makes. The activity could also be differentiated and used with sight words rather than letters.
I thought the two pictures above were great ideas to share with others. I know this is something my children would totally love and a great way to practice recognizing letters!
Letter Pops
View this link to see a creative idea for children to practice letter identification
Letter Rocks
View this link to see letter rocks created to help children with letter identification.
Letter/Sound Bottles
These bottles are an awesome idea that children could help make. They would help children a great deal with letter/ sound recognition. A child would be more apt to remember the sound that /b/ makes when they physically get to fill a bottle with buttons as well as the sound that /j/ makes when they fill a bottle with jellybeans.
Letter/Sound Magnetic Matching
Children could use this alphabet activity to match letters and the sounds that go with them. The letters and pictures can be cut individually with magnets on the back and can be matched together on cookie sheets.
Letter Matching
Children use the grid of letters laid out on the paper and match the owls with corresponding letters to match them.
I loved this example (above) of literacy in the early childhood classroom as well. Incorporating environmental print into the classroom for young children is so important. They must be able to relate learning to real life experiences and things they come into contact with on a daily basis. This is when real learning takes place.
Another important skill for young children, especially as young as preschool is identifying the number of letters in one's name. When they are able to identify that words are made up of individual letters and are able to identify what those letters are, often those are the first letters they recognize and identify. See below for another version of the same activity. Children can also practice identifying the specific letters in their name and asking other children if they have the same letters. For example, I have an A in my name, do you?
In addition to the picture shown above where children practice the initial sounds in words, once they have mastered this they also spend time figuring out the medial and final sounds in words. The activity shown below is a great way for children to practice this skill through which they practice "stretching out" the sounds they hear in words like mat.
A vowel tree created to use with magnetic letters.
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Story retelling is another skill that is so important for young children. I saw this and thought what a clever way to have children retell the story of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. One teacher used a paint mixing stick and a long piece of velcro, she then had all the characters in the story for the children to sequence in the order they are seen in the book. Follow this link to see a great tool to use with children working on story retelling and story elements.
Young children learn in different ways, learning experiences and activities need to be hands on and fun. I found this which pictures children using cooked spaghetti to practice forming letters which is crucial in their writing development. The other picture shows a young girl using Wikki Sticks to practice forming letters. View this link for another great letter formation activity to use with children. I also like the idea of incorporating a writing directory at the writing table for children to practice writing other's names in their class.
I found this picture of a writing center and found it really inspiring and what I think would be inviting for young children. It seems to include a lot of materials that children would gravitate to. Another example of a writing center pictured here.
A classroom favorite! I wanted to include this video of No, David! because it is one of my students most favorite books.
Literacy in Preschool
So much of the preschool day is spent on providing children with rich oral language experiences and hands on learning activities that appeal to all different types of learners. We spend the majority of the day learning about letters and sounds, book handling skills, print and directionality. Preschool educators play a critical role in promoting literacy, preventing reading difficulties, and preparing young children for kindergarten. Here are some of the things I found that I implement in my own classroom. This type of development in children is so crucial in creating a strong foundation before they move on to kindergarten. If they can go in with these skills in place already they are being set up for success. Take a look! I hope the use of pictures helps give you a visual as well as inspiration!
One activity I found came from teachers pay teachers
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Colorful-Alphabet-Stamping-Free-Printable
We spend a lot of time working on beginning sounds in words.
http://pinterest.com/pin/250864641715204035/
Letter Pops
View this link to see a creative idea for children to practice letter identification
Letter Rocks
View this link to see letter rocks created to help children with letter identification.
Letter/Sound Bottles
These bottles are an awesome idea that children could help make. They would help children a great deal with letter/ sound recognition. A child would be more apt to remember the sound that /b/ makes when they physically get to fill a bottle with buttons as well as the sound that /j/ makes when they fill a bottle with jellybeans.
Letter/Sound Magnetic Matching
Children could use this alphabet activity to match letters and the sounds that go with them. The letters and pictures can be cut individually with magnets on the back and can be matched together on cookie sheets.
Letter Matching
Children use the grid of letters laid out on the paper and match the owls with corresponding letters to match them.
I loved this example (above) of literacy in the early childhood classroom as well. Incorporating environmental print into the classroom for young children is so important. They must be able to relate learning to real life experiences and things they come into contact with on a daily basis. This is when real learning takes place.
Another important skill for young children, especially as young as preschool is identifying the number of letters in one's name. When they are able to identify that words are made up of individual letters and are able to identify what those letters are, often those are the first letters they recognize and identify. See below for another version of the same activity. Children can also practice identifying the specific letters in their name and asking other children if they have the same letters. For example, I have an A in my name, do you?
In addition to the picture shown above where children practice the initial sounds in words, once they have mastered this they also spend time figuring out the medial and final sounds in words. The activity shown below is a great way for children to practice this skill through which they practice "stretching out" the sounds they hear in words like mat.
A vowel tree created to use with magnetic letters.
Story retelling is another skill that is so important for young children. I saw this and thought what a clever way to have children retell the story of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. One teacher used a paint mixing stick and a long piece of velcro, she then had all the characters in the story for the children to sequence in the order they are seen in the book. Follow this link to see a great tool to use with children working on story retelling and story elements.
Young children learn in different ways, learning experiences and activities need to be hands on and fun. I found this which pictures children using cooked spaghetti to practice forming letters which is crucial in their writing development. The other picture shows a young girl using Wikki Sticks to practice forming letters. View this link for another great letter formation activity to use with children. I also like the idea of incorporating a writing directory at the writing table for children to practice writing other's names in their class.
I found this picture of a writing center and found it really inspiring and what I think would be inviting for young children. It seems to include a lot of materials that children would gravitate to. Another example of a writing center pictured here.
A classroom favorite! I wanted to include this video of No, David! because it is one of my students most favorite books.